And that is,

WE ARE SHITE!

An incredible game in all honesty and one that sort of sums up why there are so many reservations about this team and manager.

With a five game unbeaten run behind them and a strong showing from multiple players during the international break, a home game against a decent Everton side on what was the manager's one year anniversary of his first game in charge, you would think that they had all the ingredients to go out there and put in a performance.

And you'd be right ✅.

But it wasn't the performance you might think.

Let's just get right into it.

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Starting Lineup

Amorim was without Maguire and Sesko and despite the return to the squad of Martinez, he was deemed not fully fit to at least start the game. Another big blow was Cunha getting a head injury in training that, while isn't serious, was serious enough to have caused him to miss this match.

Boy did we miss him.

This meant that we saw some surprises in the team as Mazraoui started at RWB with Amad moving to no 10 nex to his mate Mbeumo and perhaps the most shocking of all, Joshua Zirkzee (yes, that Zirkzee) starting up front in the absence of Sesko.

This was his chance.

Whether he took it, you can make your mind up for yourself.

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First Half

A pretty flat start to the match from United who were attacking the Stretford End in the first 45 which is unusual. However, given our strong first half performances this season, perhaps attacking the main end would give us an added boost to go out there and put the Toffees to the sword.

Well, it appeared that Everton would put themselves to the sword as with United's first real attack of the game, something strange occurred.

Whilst the replay was happening on TV, I could hear large celebrations from the crowd, almost as if we'd scored!

Once the cameras went back to the action on the field, the referee had brandished a red card to Idrissa Gueye 😳.

This was something that confused many with replays showing that he had actually slapped his own team-mate Michael Keane when the midfielder had an issue with his defender not making the right movement for a pass which resulted in a Bruno shot that went just wide.

To go down to 10 men in 10 minutes meant that this was open season for United. We saw how this helped us in the victory over Chelsea so against a weaker opponent, they might as well give us the 3 points now, right?

Wrong.

Sooooo wrong.

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It seemed that the home side felt that they were now on easy street and were very complacent as it was the visitors who actually played the smoother football, almost as if they were the only side who knew what they were doing and United were down to 10.

This led to a well-worked strike by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall which flew into the top corner! From afar, it seemed like it was really good work by him to get past a couple United players and put it in the top corner.

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Looking at the replays though, that wasn't the case. Poor and weak defending from both Bruno and then Yoro gave the Everton midfielder the space and time to get his shot off which upon initial viewing, looked like an absolute purler with the 'keeper having no chance.

But Lammens should've saved it. The strike wasn't right in the corner nor was it hit with any true venom that it was to quick for the goalkeeper.

Yet Everton took the lead and deservedly so.

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At no point in the rest of the half did United look like they were going to trouble Jordan Pickford in goal as other than the odd strike that forced a comfortable save, we did little and less.

A truly awful 45 minutes of football with the only positives being that the first half was over and there was still a second to make things right.

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Second Half

We didn't make things right. At all. If anything, we made things really wrong.

Sure there were the chances here and there that gave you hope that maybe the equalizer and hopefully the 2nd goal would come but other than a Zirkzee header that forced a superb fingertip save from Pickford, he was far too comfortable in that Everton goal.

Amorim saw his team put around 546 crosses despite not having a real target man yet when that target man is there, we are reluctant to put the cross in.

It's so United.

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Even though the manager made some changes, it wasn't enough to see any real difference in the overall play and where the goals would come from.

United struggled and struggled and in the end, found them facing that familiar issue of not being able to break down a low block. We also couldn't rely on moments to save us which leaves United stumped.

Everton easily managed to hold on to their 1-goal lead and take the 3 points in what was former MUFC manager David Moyes' first victory as an opposing manager at Old Trafford in the Premier League.

Amorim had broken several record in his year in charge, but not all of them. This was another to add to the list.

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Verdict on Amorim

Speaking about the manager, I didn't actually have an issue with his strating lineup. With the cards he was dealt, I thought it was a decent side that should be strong enough to beat this Everton team.

Yet it was one bereft of ideas, they looked disjointed, there was no patterns, and all of them performed poorly as individuals as well. This was a performance akin to what we saw against Grimsby and Brentford which were two of our worst performances this season.

This makes it three.

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I don't think he acted quick enough in response to his side not being able to get through Everton nor was he brave enough to take a risk and do something different in order to try and salvage something from this game. With the amount of crosses his team was putting in, why not just throw De Ligt up front and see what happens? Try Lacy and maybe he has a Federico Macheda moment.

Amorim did nothing.

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Exactly a year on from his first game and I feel like not much has actually changed.

If this was his first game as United manager, I would understand why things were the way they were. But this is 12 months on and I'm seeing what?

This is why a lot of people (including myself) still have doubts about him as manager. A poor performance from his as well.

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Ratings

Lammens - 5

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Yoro - 5

De Ligt - 5.5

Shaw - 5

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Mazraoui - 5

Casemiro - 5

Bruno - 4

Dorgu - 5

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Amad - 5.5

Mbrumo - 5

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Zirkzee - 5

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Mount - 5

Mainoo - 5

Dalot - 5

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Ruben Amorim - 4

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Final Thoughts

When's the next international break?

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Man Utd lose 1-0 at home to Everton | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)